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Some of the most fascinating characters in the history of film are psychopaths.
With an interest in true crime in full force, thanks to Netflix documentaries Making a Murderer The Staircase , Joe Berlinger has adapted the story of serial killer Ted Bundy and translated it into a series (Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes ) as well as brand new film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
The film, starring Zac Efron, charts the life of the notorious Bundy, who confessed to murdering 30 women through the 1970s before facing the electric chair in January 1989.
Many actors have breathed life into gruesome killers and sadistic maniacs and some of these characters have seen several stars deliver the best performances of their career (here's looking at you, Anthony Hopkins ).
We have rounded up 20 of the best psychopaths in film – characters that have, between them, disembowelled a cop, boiled a bunny and bludgeoned a woman with a penis statue.
Show all 20 1 /2020 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film 20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Max Cady Robert De Niro is all rippling abs and menacing tattoos as Max Cady in Cape Fear, his seventh collaboration with director Martin Scorsese. His brutal rape and mutilation of Lori Davis (Illeana Douglas) and dogged sexual pursuit of Sam Bowden’s wife and daughter make for a harrowing watch.
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20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Freddy Krueger Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) was the reason for several sleepless nights when A Nightmare on Elm Street hit cinema screens. He is the ultimate slasher psycho, with blades for fingers and a penchant for killing children as they sleep.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Michael Myers The Halloween franchise’s body count currently sits at 169 but what is more surprising is that the series has made it to 11 films – a crazy number of sequels, even by horror film standards. Michael Myers, who has been played by eight actors in the last 40 years, is the most memorable masked menace of them all and has some pretty grizzly kills under his belt. The "death by thumb through the forehead" in Halloween 4 is a personal favourite.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Annie Wilkes Super fans don’t come bigger than Misery character Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates). When novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) crashes his car in a blizzard, Wilkes rescues and nurses him in her remote cabin – only to break his ankles with a sledgehammer when he misbehaves.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Norman Bates Necrophiliac, serial killer, taxidermist – Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) has many strings to his psychotic bow. The cinematic score from that infamous shower scene in Psycho has become synonymous with the horror genre and Alfred Hitchcock’s bathroom voyeurism has been replicated time and again in several films.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Patrick Bateman By his own admission, Patrick Bateman has “all the characteristics of a human being… but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust.” That just about sums up the murdering maniac featured in American Psycho.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Hedra Carlson When your new flatmate copies your hair style and clothing choices, alarm bells should probably start ringing. Hedra Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is the possessive roomie that Allison (Bridget Fonda) realises is a little too close to home in psychological thriller Single White Female.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Jack Torrance Stanley Kubrick’s cult horror classic The Shining has inspired TV shows from The Simpsons to Family Guy, but it’s the “Here’s Johnny!” scene that stands out as most iconic. Jack Nicholson is all wide eyes and bared teeth as the caretaker turned axe-wielding psychopath, Torrance.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Alex Forrest Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) made a huge mistake when he decided to cheat on his wife with the obsessive ‘bunny boiler’, Alex Forrest (Glenn Close). Close was nominated for a best actress Oscar for her role in Fatal Attraction – luckily no rabbits were harmed when she didn’t win.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Baby Jane The Joker isn’t the only screen psychopath to inspire Halloween costumes: the doll-like make up worn by Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane’s remains pretty sinister. Family rivalry is taken to extremes when Baby Jane cuts off her paralysed sister’s (Joan Crawford) food supply, only to later serve up a dead rat for dinner.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Francis “Franco” Begbie Trainspotting is certainly no Sunshine on Leith, although both were filmed in the same Scottish city. Violence, sex and alcohol are the primary concerns of reckless thug Franco Begbie (Robert Carlyle). He beats up a man for eating crisps too loudly, injures a woman when he tosses his pint glass over a balcony, and robs a jeweller’s shop at gunpoint. Nice guy.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Aileen Wuornos Charlize Theron was required to gain 30 pounds, shave her eyebrows and wear prosthetic teeth to become real life serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the Oscar-winning Monster. Some viewers argue she is an abused woman, rather than a psychopath but as the murders start to rack up, there's no end to her killing spree.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Dr Hannibal Lecter Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) is a psychopath with some serious bite. For the most part, viewers of The Silence of the Lambs are spared from the character's handiwork – the horror, therefore, packs a punch when he finally escapes his cell and disembowels an FBI cop. Cool, calculating and brilliantly intelligent, Lecter is a first-rate movie psychopath.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film The Joke Heath Ledger’s method acting was reportedly taken to extremes as the Joker. The actor is said to have locked himself in his apartment for a month prior to filming The Dark Knight and slept for two hours a night during production. The method paid off – the Joker detonating a hospital, dressed as a nurse, is movie magic and won the actor a posthumous Oscar.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Kevin Wendell Crumb Barry, Dennis, The Beast and Hedwig are just four of Kevin’s (James McAvoy) 24 personalities in M Night Shyamalan films Split and Glass. Between them, they kidnap three girls, kill and eat two of them and express a passion for Kanye West. You decide which is the worst.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Alex DeLarge Alex (Malcolm McDowell) specialises in gang violence, rape and murder in Stanley Kubrick’s dystopian classic A Clockwork Orange. The scene where he creeps into the house of the Cat Lady (Miriam Karlin) and bludgeons her to death with a giant penis sculpture ranks as the most disturbing.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Martin In Sleeping with the Enemy, Martin (Patrick Bergin) is a towering hulk of a man with a moustache that, on its own, could inspire nightmares. He is the psychopathic husband that controls Laura Burney (Julia Roberts) due to his obsessive tendencies and is so monstrous that Laura fakes her own death to escape him.
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20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film John Kramer There are nearly 100 deaths in the eight Saw films (including Saw 3D and Jigsaw) but John Kramer (Tobin Bell) claims, “I’ve never murdered anyone in my life. The decisions are up to them.” Considering the deaths include a victim’s throat slashed by a power saw (Saw III) and another’s arms ripped off by chains (Saw 3D), a question is posed regarding Kramer's motives.
20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film Peyton Flanders The Bartel family’s babysitter, Peyton (Rebecca De Mornay), may look sweet as pie but her husband’s suicide and a miscarriage mean that she’s out for blood in Curtis Hanson’s thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Peyton breastfeeds Claire Bartel’s (Annabella Sciorra) baby and makes moves on her husband, before murdering her best friend. Female revenge is vicious.
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20 of the most terrifying psychopaths in film John Doe John Doe’s (Kevin Spacey) gruesome murders in Seven reference each of the deadly sins: lust, wrath, greed, sloth, pride, envy and gluttony. The death scene relating to the latter is hard to stomach, but it’s the film's final surprise that truly puts Doe on the list as one of film's coldest villains.
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Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile is available to watch on Sky Cinema now.
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